Question: One of the questions in the Guide in Chapter 4 (question 6, page 103) has your professor installing spyware on your computer so she can obtain all your instant messages, email, and Web browser traffic. Actually, obtaining that data is quite a bit easier than using spyware. All your professor, or you, has to do is to install a program called a packet analyzer, also called a packet sniffer. The former term is used when the program is used for appropriate purposes and the latter term is used otherwise. We'll use packet sniffer here. Under either name, such programs read, record, and display all of the wireless packets that are in the airwaves around them. Somewhere in your classroom there is a wireless device that is receiving and sending wireless packets to and from your computer, connecting you to the Internet, and performing a number of other functions.
All of those wireless packets have to be broadcast in the open so they can reach the intended destination (when you send, that's the wireless device; when you receive, that's your computer or mobile device). So, all the packet sniffer does is capture all of the wireless packets floating around the room and format them in an easily accessible manner. So, anyone in your classroom (and anyone near your classroom) can go to www. wireshark.com (or a similar site) and download and install a packet sniffer. Learning to use it isn't difficult, and the site provides video and other helpful documentation to speed the learning process. Once someone has done that, he or she can read nearly anything that anyone else in the room is sending or receiving over the LAN wireless network. That anything includes instant messages, most email, and any http:// Web traffic. Your professor is too professional to use a packet sniffer for such a violation of your privacy, but the guy sitting next to you may not be.
It could be he who asks you, "Does Jennifer know you say such terrible things about her?" or "Did you enjoy looking at those models on VictoriasSecret.com in class?" or perhaps, "Why were you searching for the term DUI lawyer in class today?" What can you do? Well, for one, you can use https:// instead of http://. If you do so, the packet sniffer will be able to tell that you went to a particular site, but it won't obtain data about what you did when you got there. For example, if you use https://www.google.com, the sniffer will be able to determine you went to google.com, but it won't be able to record what you searched for. However, for anything other than buying, few sites respond to both http:// and https://. You can use secure email, but almost no one else will, so that's not much help. Of course, if you never send anything that you wouldn't be proud to have published on the front page of the campus newspaper tomorrow, you won't have a problem with what you say. That doesn't help when flakey friends send you sensational material, however. The ultimate protection is not to use your computer or mobile device for any unauthorized purpose while in class.
1. Explain what packet sniffers do and describe the situation that enables them to succeed.
2. Besides your classroom, what other places do you visit for which packet sniffing might be a problem for you?
3. List five ways that you can protect yourself from packet sniffing.
4. List the evidence you have that your traffic has never been sniffed. You can answer this question with one word.
5. Is packet sniffing illegal? Is it unethical? Explain your answers.
6. If you use a mobile device, but connect with the cell tower wireless instead of the classroom's LAN, are you protected from packet sniffing? Why or why not?
7. Summarize your conclusions about your future behavior regarding wireless use in class.
8. [Optional for high achievers or sniffers in training] Go to www.wireshark.com and watch the introductory video. Explain how their packet sniffer formats wireless packets for easy consumption. List terms used in the video that you learned in this chapter.